Jan. 18 (Bloomberg) -- At least 18 people were killed and
more than 40 injured in a stampede in Mumbai’s Malabar Hill area
where a crowd had gathered to pay homage to a spiritual leader,
the police said.

The stampede started after 1 a.m., an official of the
Mumbai Police said in a telephone interview today, asking not to
be identified as the person isn’t authorized to speak to the
media. The official didn’t give more details.

People gathered in the south Mumbai locality to pay homage
to Dawoodi Bohra community’s spiritual leader Syedna Mohammed
Burhanuddin who died yesterday at the age of 102, Press Trust of
India reported, citing government officials it didn’t identify.

Stampedes during mass gatherings aren’t uncommon in India,
the world’s second-most populous nation. In October, at least
111 people, including women and children, were killed when
rumors that a bridge was about to collapse triggered panic and
caused pilgrims to jump into a river.

A crowd surge at a railway station in northern India killed
at least 36 people in February last year as Hindu devotees drawn
by one of the holiest days of the world’s largest religious
gathering rushed to board trains. In 2010, 76 people died in
four incidents. About 102 people were killed in January 2011 at
a Hindu shrine in the southern state of Kerala, according to
government data.